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http://dx.doi.org/10.14697/jkase.2019.39.4.535

Investigations on Public Perception of Science Articles in the Mass Media and Understanding of Scientific Terms Used in High Frequency in Science Articles  

Yun, Eunjeong (Kyungpook National University)
Park, Yunebae (Kyungpook National University)
Publication Information
Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education / v.39, no.4, 2019 , pp. 535-544 More about this Journal
Abstract
In order to find out whether the traditional mass media in our society are sufficiently functioning as a vehicle of providing scientific information to the public outside the school education, public perception of science articles in mass media and scientific terms used in high frequency in science articles have been examined. To investigate the public perception on science articles, a questionnaire was constructed about the usefulness, importance, access frequency, and understanding of science articles. The questionnaires were conducted in areas with high flow populations such as train stations or subway stations. A total of 425 responses were used for analysis. In order to extract high frequency scientific terms used in science articles, two television companies and two newspapers were designated as target media, and their texts on science articles reported over the last 17 years were collected to investigate the frequency of scientific terms used. Based on the frequency, we conducted the self-report comprehension test for the top 100 scientific terms. The results of this study show that the public in our society has relatively high perception of the importance and usefulness of science articles, however, reading and understanding the articles seems to be somewhat difficult. In addition, the scientific terminology used in science articles has a high degree of comprehension for those of higher education, natural sciences majors, and men. In addition, scientific terms with high understanding degree were characterized according to gender, age, educational background, and field of major.
Keywords
science article; mass media; scientific term; scientific literacy;
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